20 Times The Undertaker Proved WWE Is His Yard

9. Gatekeeper To The Main Event

Long before John Cena started using this moniker for himself, it was the Undertaker who held this position. There€™s a reason that Undertaker stayed on SmackDown during the Brand Extension era instead of on RAW, where the €˜bigger stars€™ were said to be: Undertaker was more interested in working with future main-eventers and building up younger talent than hanging with the other top dogs in the company. If you look at Undertaker€™s career from 2002 to 2010, he worked primarily with wrestlers who had just started with WWE, or who were prospects that Vince thought would carry his company into the future: Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Batista, Randy Orton, Ken Kennedy, Edge, etc. The vast majority of these Superstars debuted either in the late 1990s or early 2000s, and had not yet reached their peak in the company. As a result, the Undertaker used his established star power to make these younger guys more credible, add more of a €˜big match feel€™ to his encounters with them, and help diversify the pool of main-event-caliber stars. The fruits of Undertaker€™s labour were, for the most part, successful: John Cena and Randy Orton have long been seen as the #1 and #2 Superstars in the company; Edge was the face of SmackDown until his sudden retirement; Batista was a major star despite his age; and Ken Kennedy would€™ve been a major star had he not dropped Randy on his bad shoulder. There€™s a reason one of Undertaker€™s most famous catchphrases was, €˜This is my yard€and I€™m the big dog that runs that yard.€™ Undertaker could make or break anyone€™s main event aspirations, and for the most part, by working with him, younger WWE Superstars became the top stars of today.